Dictionary

bemire en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /bəˈmaɪə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /bəˈmaɪɚ/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English *bemyren (possibly attested in Middle English bemyred), equivalent to be- (“all over”) + mire.

Meanings

1. (archaic) To soil with mud or a similar substance.
   • The Minde, constrain’d the Bodies want to feele, Makes Salves of Earth the Bodies hurt to heale, Which doe the Mind bemire with thoughts vnfitt; 1603, John Davies, The Discovery of the Little World, with the Government Thereof, Oxford, page 118:
   • I wished to rise; but what could I put on? Only my damp and bemired apparel; in which I had slept on the ground and fallen in the marsh. 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “[HTTP://WWW.GUTENBERG.ORG/FILES/1260/1260-H/1260-H.HTM CHAPTER 29]”, in Jane Eyre. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:
   • Ah me! while I fond wretch indulge my Dreams, Winds blast my Flow’rs, and Boars bemire my Streams. 1684, “The Second Eclogue”, in Nahum Tate, transl., edited by John Dryden, Miscellany Poems, London: Jacob Tonson, page 13:
   • There was a Cow-Dung in the Path, and I must needs try my Activity by attempting to leap over it. I took a Run, but unfortunately jumped short, and found my self just in the Middle up to my Knees. I waded through with some Difficulty, and one of the Footmen wiped me as clean as he could with his Handkerchief; for I was filthily bemired […] 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), pages 99-100:
2. (archaic) To immerse or trap in mire.
   • I saw your horse bemired, and put him from his agony; which, by my sooth! an ye had been a more merciful rider, ye had done yourself. 1888, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Black Arrow, Book I, Chapter 2:
   • Likely the stage-coach is bemired. The roads at this season of the year are none too good. 1912, Alice C. Thompson, The Good Old Days: A Comedy in One Act, Philadelphia: Penn Publishing, page 9:
   • True, there are by the direction of the Law-giver, certain good and subs[tantial] Steps, placed even through the very midst of this Slough; but at such a time as this place doth much spue out [its filth] as it doth against change of weather, these steps are hardly seen; or if they be, Men through the diziness of their heads, step besides; and then they are bemired to purpose, notwithstanding the steps be there […] 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, London: Nath. Ponder, pages 13–14:
   • In two of the morasses there was not depth sufficient to have bemired an animal of such magnitude and strength […] 1802, Rembrandt Peale, Account of the Skeleton of the Mammoth, a Non-Descript Carnivorous Animal of Immense Size Found in America, London, page 38:
3. (figuratively) To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.
   • "We have to stop him at any cost. That is the way our Cause gets bemired. Some villain who knows nothing about it comes into it for money and so the labours of the honest mediums get discounted." 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

Forms

Deriveds

bemirement